KUALA LUMPUR: Equity investors would have heard of Datuk Tey Por Yee’s (pic) association with volatile share price movements in companies that he has invested in — for instance, Protasco Bhd, Ire-Tex Corp Bhd and Malaysia Pacific Corp Bhd (MPCorp), just to name a few — ever since his return to the local corporate scene two years back.

The frequent share price rallies seen in the shares that Tey bought into began to earn him quite a reputation, as if his was the Midas touch that would send the share price of any company he touched upwards.

But strangely, things often seemed to go wrong after that, and those same stocks which saw their share prices rise, inexplicably, would invariably tumble.

In a recent interview with The Edge Financial Daily, Tey defended himself and said that the market perception is unfair to him, saying that the performance of some of the companies that he had invested in had been unstable even before he surfaced as a substantial shareholder.

Citing one of his early investments, Hytex Integrated Bhd as an example, Tey said even though his team had the risk appetite to revive the ailing company, the deterioration of the garment manufacturer was too fast for them to put a stop to.

“They lost a big contract with Nike. We tried to do what we could, but the business went down too fast,” he said.

Tey first emerged as a shareholder of Hytex on Feb 8, 2013, with a 13.33% stake, when its shares were trading at 26.5 sen. About three months later, the share price tripled to 69 sen, which created quite a bit of buzz in the market.

But the uptrend didn’t last. In the following month, Hytex sank to as low as 10 sen, taking with it over 85% of the company’s market value. In November that year, Tey sold off his stake in Hytex, which has been delisted from Bursa Malaysia.

Tey contended that it is unfair to blame what happened to Hytex on him.

“I was aware that Hytex was an ailing company, but I see this kind of risk as an opportunity,” he said.

The 39-year-old businessman said his venture capitalist background had equipped him with a relatively higher risk appetite.

Tey’s venture in Protasco (fundamental: 1.2; valuation: 1.15) in November 2012 is another highlight.

An ugly shareholders’ tussle broke out in Protasco last year, over an alleged breach of contract with regard to the purchase of an equity interest in an Indonesian oil and gas firm. The series of lawsuits that were filed from the wrangling — and the subsequent removal of Tey and his friend Ooi Kock Aun from the board of directors — raised many eyebrows.

As there are now lawsuits pending over the issue, all Tey could say now is “it wasn’t the pleasant partnership that he expected”.

On Ire-Tex (fundamental: 0.85; valuation: 1.7), in which he emerged as a substantial shareholder on May 16, 2013, when the shares were trading at 49 sen. Just half a month later, the share price peaked at 74 sen, up 38%.

However, things started to go wrong. Besides Hytex’s troubles, corrugated packaging services provider Ire-Tex, for one, saw its external auditor Messrs UHY expressed in early May a qualified opinion on the group’s accounts for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014.

The auditor’s concern was about the recoverability of money spent through its wholly-owned subsidiary Zoomic Automation (M) Sdn Bhd, a transaction occurred during Tey’s tenure as executive director, a post which he resigned from on Feb 25 this year.

All that Tey had said was that he was not involved in the said transaction, and that his resignation was to allow him to focus on developing his flagship company Nexgram Holdings Bhd.

“I think I have too much trust in people in the past,” said Tey, when asked about problems that cropped up in companies that he had invested in.

Now, besides the 13.6% stake he has in Protasco (as at June 10), he still owns 5.21% of MPCorp (fundamental: 0.2; valuation: 0.9) (as at July 22, 2014), 4.5% of Wintoni Group Bhd (as at August 1, 2014) and 29.07% of Asdion Bhd (as at Jan 22, 2014).

Meanwhile, Tey, as Nexgram’s (fundamental: 2.1; valuation: 1.7) chief executive officer and managing director, revealed that his management team is mulling a “consolidation exercise” for his business ventures, on which he declined to elaborate, citing confidentiality as a reason.

Nexgram recently came into the limelight, after its executive director Alan How Han Lun openly told reporters that the group is in talks to acquire the last available land of beleaguered 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s Tun Razak Exchange project.

But neither How nor Nexgram divulged further details about the acquisition.

Coincidently, Tey has been raising  his stake in the group lately. In May alone, he acquired 61.1 million shares or 3.2%, bringing his holding in the group to 23.37% as at May 29.

Nexgram, which trended upwards from 5.5 sen on Dec 15 last year to reach a peak of 13 sen on May 19, closed at 9.5 sen last Friday, with a market capitalisation of RM197.55 million.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 15, 2015.